With all the focus on Cesc Fabregas over the past few days you’d be well within your rights to consider Arsenal a one man team - a one man team no longer in possession of that one particular man. A no man team, then Luckily for all of the Arsenal world, and unluckily for any of our potential opponents, we are not in fact a one man team. We are perhaps a team minus one man, but that’s about as far as
Columns, bulletins, reports, previews, analysis, questions, answers. News rooms and television studios are haunted by the presence of their absence. Upstairs in the stadium ex-players and ‘experts’ survey the arena, discussing what they cannot and will not see. The two who are not there. But down below, way beneath their feet, eleven far more important individuals lay waiting. Eleven chosen men who know in their hearts that after all the explaining, talking, fighting and negotiating the dreams and ambitions of the thousands upon thousands now rest in their hands. Who they are not and where they have been makes
Some fans are excited about the prospect of Fabregas and Mata playing together but I have to agree with those who believe that the two are, in basic terms, mutually exclusive. It is unlikely we will spend £20m on Mata without selling Fabregas first which is a crying, wailing, please-stop-screaming-because-it’s-four-in-the-morning-and-I-need-some-sleep-before-work shame. Not only because they would have made a tasty Spanish omelette of a pair on the pitch together but also because I can’t help feeling
The cumulative effect of all this is that other teams will be very much on the lookout for deals we are interested in since they know they may well be able to outmuscle us financially and steal a real talent from under our noses. I cannot claim to know anything more than most of you but there has to be at least some chance that whoever bid for Joel Campbell did so only
In return, and to prove to you that we begin this venture on equal footing, I promise to give the same time and consideration to the words I write so that I do not unintentionally anger or insult any one of you who have so kindly taken the effort to listen to my thoughts. And if you feel that this is not a fair deal then there is a fully functioning and well-worn comments section below where I would be happy
The truth of the matter probably lies somewhere in the middle of both sides of the argument but the issue becomes clouded by the all the badge-kissing and public displays of emotion and support. When player X praises the club and its fans in multiple interviews and can be seen hugging teammates and fighting for the club week-in week-out it is hard not to develop an image of them as more than just
What that tells us is that however honest and impeccably straight Mr Usmanov might have been during the interview the fact remains that it is remarkably easy to make promises while acting on them remains beyond your present capabilities. And there is a vast history of just these types of promises being shattered into a million tiny lies as soon as the power to act on them is granted to the person
The first thing that this adventure has taught is that our DNA as Arsenal fans must dictate that we attack each other incessantly, Twitterly disputing each and every individual, minute, tiny little atomic piece of information, news, gossip and/or complete and utter tripe. Every time a story is released – accurate or not - it is effectively thrown to the lions as literally thousands of Arsenal followers rip every aspect of its content to shreds before leaving the decaying carcass of a valid argument to turn on each
But rather than let all of that weigh heavy on your mind like a jagged granite hat I’ve decided to provide a list of 101 things that I consider to be more fun, useful or, indeed, imaginative than needlessly stressing about what has already been an annoying and sigh inducing transfer period. I’m sure from the content of the list you will be fully able to work out a) how excited I am about the
No he’s not perfect. No he’s not the best player in the world (Bale, obviously). No he’s not our saviour. But he is effective and he is improving and we can’t really ask for more than that. Perhaps